Since May 2012, officials in the two towns had worked to develop a plan to have the office running by this month, according to Woodstown Councilman Ed Segrest.

Currently, Woodstown has a construction code office in the borough hall, located on West Avenue. Pilesgrove’s office is in the municipal building on U.S. Route 40.

The plan was to host the shared office in one location.

“We are still analyzing our own department. Some of this stuff takes a long time and it’s still good to have communication,” Pilesgrove Mayor Kevin Eachus said.

According to municipal officials, a budget and anticipated cost savings was never created in the planning stages.

Pilesgrove suggested the alternative of Pilesgrove performing all Woodstown permitting and inspections at no cost to the borough, and it would keep the permit revenue, according to municipal officials.

“This would entail Woodstown shutting down its office and all inspections and permit applications would be done out of the Pilesgrove Municipal Building. Council decided it is most important to keep the quality of service we have from our current office. We are happy with the construction staff in our office today but were just looking to gain some efficiency on costs by sharing office locations,” Segrest explained.

“Borough council felt unanimously that the service to its residents would suffer under this approach.”

Additionally, the office hours discussed were not feasible, officials said.

The Pilesgrove Township Construction Code Office is open on Monday and Wednesday while Woodstown Borough Construction Code Office is open on Tuesday and Friday.

Pilesgrove was unable to offer evening office hours on Tuesdays as Woodstown does, officials said. The Woodstown Construction Code office is active Tuesday evenings from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. while Pilesgrove is not open.

Segrest added that Woodstown will continue to look into other opportunities for shared services and will reach out to municipalities in the region for various services, including trash and recycling collection.